Democratic Party Out-raising Opposition, News Corp. Gives Big Again and More in Capital Eye Opener: October 4

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADS IN FUNDS RAISED AND SPENT: With one month to go before the November mid-term elections, the Republican Party will be looking for a prolific October.

In a shift from the last two midterm election cycles, the Democratic Party is more than $200 million ahead in total funds raised during the 2010 election cycle. So far, the Democratic Party’s related national and state committees have accumulated more than $663 million while the Republican Party’s committees have raised $440 million. And there’s still plenty of time left to continue raking in the cash.

In 2006, the Republican Party raised more than $792 million compared to the Democratic Party’s total, $599 million.

The Republican party also trails in cash spent during this election cycle — $425 million to $399 million. The Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have all out-raised their Republican counter-parts by millions.

However, individual Republican candidates for Congress have retained a lead in fund-raising this election cycle. Republican House candidates have a $4 million edge while Republican candidates for Senate have raised almost $10 million more than Democratic hopefuls.

And numerous right-leaning organizations have already poured tens of millions of dollars into federal-level politics this election cycle, often in the form of television advertisements promoting Republican candidates or slamming Democratic candidates. Such spending has helped close the spending gap between Republican and Democratic national committees.

NEWS CORP. DONATES $1 MILLION TO U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:Alert the liberal media: Fox News parent company News Corp. is playing politics again, this time donating $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The donation to the deep-pocketed business lobby, which has spent more than $44 million in federally-reportable lobbying so far in 2010, comes only months after the media company’s $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association in June.

Still, while some people point to News Corp.’s recent big ticket donations to conservative groups as evidence of a conservative bias in news coverage, the top five recipients of cash from people and PACs related to News Corp. for the 2010 election cycle are Democrats.

Furthermore, 59 percent of News Corp. donations to federal candidates this cycle have gone to Democrats.

DESPITE NATIONAL ATTENTION, FACEBOOK MODEST IN LOBBYING EFFORTS:Facebook has more than 500 million users in 180 countries around the world, billions of dollars in revenue and now a controversial Hollywood movie about the company’s early years.

Still, the social networking site remains low-key in lobbying efforts, spending only $101,000 on lobbying during the first six months of this year. During 2009, the company spent about $200,000 in lobbying — just a fraction of what other, more established computer and internet companies are spending.

When Facebook does choose to dole out the political cash, the company’s legislative priorities include technology, media, trade and civil liberties issues.

However, as OpenSecrets Blog reported in August, Facebook has been increasingly active in online privacy debates of late, as the company’s former chief privacy officer even ran (unsuccessfully) for California District Attorney.

INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE UPDATE: Center for Responsive Politics researcher Spencer MacColl reports that the big winner Friday in the nation’s independent expenditure battle is the National Republican Congressional Committee, which spent more than $824,000 on that day alone, according to a Center analysis of federal data.

About two-thirds of that sum went toward media messaging attacking Democratic candidates, while the rest helped fund polling and survey research. The advertisement buys alone involved more than 30 different congressional races and cost between $4,600 and $27,000 each, according to Spencer’s calculations.

But it’s the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that wins the awards for the largest single expenditure in one race. The left-leaning organization dropped $200,000 on independent expenditures in the Washington state U.S. Senate race — the money going toward opposing Republican candidate Dino Rossi, who is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

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